Danny Dyer

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast from BBC Radio 4. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury, that they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. For rights reasons, the music's shorter than on the original broadcast, but you can find a version with longer music tracks on BBC Sounds. Listeners will also get access to episodes 28 days earlier than everyone else. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:51

My castaway this week is the actor Danny Dyer. He was born and raised in East London, and he wasn't much interested in school, except for Miss Flynn's drama class. By the time he was 16, he'd become an in-demand teen actor. His first grown-up role, if you could call a drug-dealing party animal grown-up, was in the film Human Traffic. A year after its release, he was cast on the London stage by Harold Pinter, someone he describes as a fellow East End geezer and a West Ham fan, who became his mentor and champion.

Presenter1:19

His work in films such as The Football Factory, Assassin and Vendetta often feature him as a cockney hardman. His eight-year run as a different kind of EastEnder, Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter, earned him three National Television Awards. More recently, his portrayal of self-made tech millionaire Freddie Jones in the television adaptation of Jilly Cooper's rivals brought out his softer side. Alongside all that, he's won a legion of fans by being himself. His no-nonsense political commentary has repeatedly gone viral. He's presented numerous documentaries and his appearance on the genealogy programme, Who Do You Think You Are?, made for a memorable television moment when he discovered he was descended from royalty. He says, I divide opinion, but I think that's fine. I struggled with it as a younger actor and when social media first came around, but I'm absolutely fine with it now. Danny Dyer, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Danny Dyer2:09

It's an honor to be here that opening music. This summit quite comforting.

Danny Dyer2:13

About that title music.

Presenter2:15

Well, absolutely thrilled to have you with us as our castaway this week. So you say you divide opinion, Danny, but I mean rivals. The critics gave you raves across the boards. What did that feel like?

Danny Dyer2:17

Is that cow?

Danny Dyer2:24

What did that feel like? Look, listen, I'm always grateful to be working. And he's not the lead.

Danny Dyer2:30

So Dominique Treadwell Collins, who brought me into EastEnders, offered me the part and David Tennant in it and Aiden Turner and all these amazing people. I was like, you know, you're certainly not going to say no to that. I said, just sum the character up for me, because obviously I'm going to say yes. And he said, well, he's a teddy bear with a bite. I thought, I'm in.

Presenter2:46

He was the heart of the series, wasn't he? And a real a real heart throb. You've got this legion of female fans who you might have thought they'd be lost in other beef cakes taking their shirt off, but they were they were there for Fred Fred.

Danny Dyer2:48

In a

Danny Dyer2:58

Yeah, I don't think that was the plan. I think what I've managed to do, or what the show's managed to do.

Danny Dyer3:03

is make kindness in a man sexy, which I don't think's been a thing for a long time.

Presenter3:08

The reviews, as I say, were fantastic. Did you notice that there was a note of surprise in a few of them? And I wonder how you felt about that, if you did.

Danny Dyer3:15

I guess.

Danny Dyer3:17

I've been around for a long time, over thirty years.

Danny Dyer3:20

I think I've done some good work over the years and I've never really been acknowledged.

Danny Dyer3:24

I thought there's a bit of elitism within our industry.

Danny Dyer3:28

and me being incredibly working class and proud of my roots and everything. I just I think I've never been acknowledged. And I think that I went through a stage where I was a bit of a parody of myself and I felt that people, you know, had some awful reviews about me

Danny Dyer3:41

And I've had reviews by certain people I won't mention um that have wrote reviews in a cockney accent and I always felt that why is that allowed?

Presenter3:49

Reviews in an accent.

Danny Dyer3:50

Yeah, so, you know, cutting out the H's in the sentences and stuff like that and strike a light, Governor. And I thought, but why would that be allowed? Because if I was a black actor, you certainly wouldn't do it in a Jamaican accent. I've just always found that quite fascinating. But, you know, I own it. I don't work for critics in a sense, but.

Danny Dyer4:08

The one that did do me was that the headline was the biggest plot to us about rivals is that Danny Dyke can act and I thought well that's in a way it's a compliment, but at the same time like really? Do you know what I mean? Like cheers.

Presenter4:18

Cheers.

Danny Dyer4:19

You know?

Presenter4:20

And what do you think that says? Do you think that says something about you or more about the reviewer?

Danny Dyer4:24

I don't know. It's still a revelation to me, this whole industry. I've never been media trained, which I think is quite apparent and obvious. I have always been me. I went to Harold Pinter, obviously, when I started to get into theatre, was somebody that took me under his wing and somebody that was very much loved and acclaimed. And he was a huge part of my life. But he always said to me, just be you, everyone else is taken. And I never quite understood what that means. I get it now.

Presenter4:47

On the subject of being yourself, Danny, you once said: as actors, our toolbox is us. We play ourselves, we're salespeople. Absolutely. Tell me more about that.

Danny Dyer4:54

Tell him.

Danny Dyer4:55

First, hold my hands up. We are selling words because the writer's the chef and then he gives me a plate of words and if he's a rubbish writer, it's a bad plate of food. How do I sell this as a waiter to the public? I'm not undermining what I do, by the way, because there's emotional stuff that comes with it. I think, you know, the most creative people are the ones with the most trauma. I've got a bit of trauma in my life, like most people. And I have to dig into that sometimes. So that's what I think acting is. I'm sure there's a million drama teachers out there who would disagree with me. I also understand that drama school, you're encouraged to be a blank canvas. So anything that makes you you, you get rid of it and you're a blank canvas and then you can become characters.

Speaker 45:18

Yeah.

Presenter5:36

You don't do that.

Danny Dyer5:37

No, of course I don't. Absolutely. I haven't got the time.

Danny Dyer5:40

So I suppose it's getting opportunities to try different things. I've never really been offered. I mean, I think I would love to play a gay aristocrat at some point if someone wants to roll the dice on it.

Presenter5:49

Cross my fingers at that in your future. We've got a lot to dig into today, Danny, and of course your discs to share. Should we get into it then?

Danny Dyer5:50

New future.

Danny Dyer5:53

Yeah.

Danny Dyer5:55

Temway.

Presenter5:55

Disk number one, what have you got?

Danny Dyer5:57

I've gone for Slave to Love Brian Ferry because

Danny Dyer6:01

I love this tune anyway, and it's a part of my rival's journey, which is where I find myself at this very moment. I'm slightly in vogue, and I just think it's a lovely tune. It's a really calm, sexy tune.

Speaker 46:18

The usual land

Speaker 46:24

There's no escape Teneal

Speaker 46:31

You got to know

Speaker 46:34

Let's do it with

Presenter6:44

Brian Ferry and Slave to Love, which featured on the rival soundtrack. Danny Dyer, you were born in Custom House in East London in nineteen seventy seven. When you think back to your childhood, what do you remember?

Danny Dyer6:57

Well, there was love, but I do come from, you know, uh so my dad left when I was nine.

Danny Dyer7:03

And uh so I was brought up by very strong matriarchs that swore a lot, you know, like my nan, my mum, my aunts. What's important for children and I've got children myself is love and stability. Doesn't matter where you live, I was brought up on a council estate and

Danny Dyer7:19

A lot of danger in the air, as always.

Danny Dyer7:22

You know, the masculinity thing, do you know what I mean? Men and men, women and women, that sort of thing. But, you know, I had a lot of love. Do you know what I mean? My mum was a very affectionate person and still is. So I always felt loved. There was eighteen months between me and my brother. Very different to me, my brother. He's very quite feminine.

Danny Dyer7:37

He didn't like football and sport. He liked playing with girls and playing hopscotch and skipping.

Presenter7:38

Mm-hmm.

Presenter7:43

And you've got a little bit of a single.

Danny Dyer7:43

And then I've got my sister, Kayleigh. And so when she was born is when sort of my dad left. So it was quite difficult for her. She never really had a father figure around. And by the way, my father's around in my life now. And he is a decent man. He's just he's just my mum and dad should never have got married.

Presenter7:58

They were very different. So Tawny was a painter and decorator. What was his favorite?

Danny Dyer8:01

Yeah.

Danny Dyer8:02

Well, he'd buy the Sun newspaper and me mum would buy the Mirror and my dad used to call me Mum a Looney Lefty and I didn't know what that meant. So they would kick off about most things really. So they ne they never really got on.

Presenter8:13

And what kind of dad was he then? That was his worldview, wasn't he?

Danny Dyer8:15

Worldview was a masculine man. He wasn't cuddly.

Danny Dyer8:20

And I think he did like me, just never never showed it in that way. And I remember there was a moment where I wasn't allowed to hold his hand anymore and was crossing the road. It was a really busy road. And I went to grab his hand. And he went, No, we don't do that anymore, boy. Little things that stick with you.

Presenter8:32

Yeah.

Danny Dyer8:33

And you go, oh, okay, so now I'm not. Do you know what I mean? So, whereas my mum was always cuddling, always kissing us, cuddling us.

Presenter8:38

You're affectionate though.

Danny Dyer8:39

I'm very affectionate.

Presenter8:40

Yeah, so you're you're maybe more like your mum in character.

Danny Dyer8:43

But I understand why my dad was like that because he was brought up in the 50s and the 60s, and his dad was quite a military man. So, you know, he was quite aggressive. His dad, my granddad, used to hit him a lot. And if my dad was a minute late from coming home, he'd be locked in his bedroom and he wouldn't get no dinner and stuff. He used to stash biscuits under his mattress and stuff. And I suppose I've done the opposite in a sense of the stuff I didn't like about the way I was parented. I thought I'm not going to do that with my kids. I'm going to be the opposite. So I don't begrudge it. Obviously, I had a lot of trauma as a kid. I like to work through that as I became older because of male role models in your life are very important. And when you haven't got one, you don't quite know how to be a man, whatever that means. And so it comes out later in life, I feel.

Presenter9:23

We'll talk about your dad leaving the family in a minute, but what kind of kid were you? You know, you said you described your brother as being quite different to you, he had this sort of feminine energy. What were you like?

Danny Dyer9:31

Yeah.

Danny Dyer9:33

I think I was a naughty kid in the sense of I was very cheeky and um uh I could I had the ability to be able to make people laugh and I was quite scatty and a bit weird and a bit odd.

Presenter9:43

Weirdo

Danny Dyer9:43

Just just odd. I would I would do weird voices and dancing around. My nickname was sort of Spandal Bailey. Spandal used to call me'cause I was really skinny and obviously I wouldn't.

Presenter9:53

Is that'cause you look like you could be in Spanish, by the way?

Danny Dyer9:54

Be inspired, by the way. And yeah, no, and also, yeah, I was dancing about to that sort of music then, I suppose. Yeah.

Presenter9:58

And I suppose.

Danny Dyer9:59

But the ability as a child to make adults laugh was a power.

Presenter10:04

So tell me about that then, and especially tell me about your mum, Christine, because I'm imagining your first audience would have been what, your mum, her mum, your aunties?

Danny Dyer10:12

Yeah, yeah, I had big family. So my nan had six kids.

Danny Dyer10:16

My nan Polly, and she on a Saturday, we would all go to her house. So all of her children would go to it with all their kids, all my cousins. And she would do a roast for about 30 people in this council estate in Stratford. And I would absorb, I think, as an actor, you listen and you absorb. So I could do impressions of uncles and stuff. And as much as I was shy, I feel like I was a shy kid.

Speaker 210:25

Uh

Speaker 410:25

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 210:25

Uh

Speaker 410:27

Yeah.

Danny Dyer10:40

I actually wasn't when I was in front of all my family. It's mad to me.

Presenter10:43

Well that maybe shows how safe you f

Danny Dyer10:44

Travel I did feel safe, absolutely. And, you know, after my dad left and stuff, there was other uncles and stuff and people around, male figures that were sort of in my life. And I had an uncle, Gary, who was my mum's brother, who we always called him a power cut baby because my mum was sort of like 20 years older than him. So he was the last child out of the six. I think he's four years older than me, but I always really looked up to him. I thought he was the coolest kid in the world, you know what I mean? And he would give me, because we had no money, he would give me hand-me-downs. He gave me his old puffer jacket once, and I couldn't believe I owned a puffer jacket. He did give me a pair of Nightcare Macs, but I had to wear four pairs of socks with them because they were too big for me. But, you know.

Presenter11:22

I bet you styled it though.

Danny Dyer11:24

I didn't care. The fact that I had a pair of Nike maxes on was just like the coolest thing in the world to me. Do you know what I mean? So that sense of love within your family, that it was so beautiful.

Presenter11:34

Danny, let's go to the music. It's your second choice today. Does this take you back to when you were growing up?

Danny Dyer11:40

There wasn't a lot of music in my house growing up.

Danny Dyer11:43

But it would be Billy Idol. You know, me and my dad at a moment when I got married and we was getting ready and I said, What I knew it, I knew he was gonna say it. I said, So I chucked the tune on, pop.

Danny Dyer11:53

And what do you want? And I knew he was gonna call it Billy Ardle. He didn't go White Wedding, he went Rebel Yellow and I do love this song because it just reminds me of masculinity and my dad who might sort of nod his nut to a tune. And I go, Oh look, he's letting go a little bit there, look.

Speaker 412:08

Last night a little dancer came dancing to my door.

Speaker 412:14

Last night a little angel came pumping on the floor.

Speaker 412:20

He said it completely, you got a license for love

Speaker 412:25

Handy Felix Fargus, pray help from above, be called.

Speaker 412:31

In the midnight house, she grind mo, mo.

Presenter12:39

Billy Idol and Rebel Yell. So, Danny Dyer, your parents split up when you were nine. What happened?

Danny Dyer12:46

My dad was painting somebody's house in Paddington and he had an affair with this woman and

Danny Dyer12:51

He basically was flitting between two families so he was raising and I've got two other sisters Sophia and Catherine and so for about three years he was running two families. You know, he's like um he's one of the best actors I've ever seen I've met because how on earth did he do that? Like Christmas Day he would disappear for a couple of hours and you think where's he going? So anyway my mum found out'cause the person he was having the affair with knew about my mum and stuff so she rang up and told her.

Presenter13:17

Do you remember?

Danny Dyer13:18

I remember, yeah, I do remember. I remember my mum sort of collapsing on the floors on the phone land line back in the day with my sister in her arms and me and my brother sort of going, Oh, wow, this is heavy.

Danny Dyer13:28

A bit like an episode of EastEnders, I suppose. It was like a duff-duff.

Speaker 413:31

Mm.

Danny Dyer13:31

My brother, being a bit more grown up than me, knew it was the right thing, but it really did sort of. I was like, you know, I need, you know, where's he going? And I sort of, the only person I could blame was my mum, she was the only one in front of me.

Speaker 413:31

Yeah.

Presenter13:41

So were you angry with you because it wasn't a problem?

Danny Dyer13:41

So were you angry with your mother? I was angry with the world, I suppose. So what, you know, what why?

Presenter13:44

So what?

Presenter13:45

So so your dad left. Did you have any contact with him after that? I mean, what what happened next?

Danny Dyer13:49

Well, sort of flitting in and out, really. And, you know, as you get older, you start to understand things a little bit more, you know, and you become a young adult yourself, and you start to.

Danny Dyer13:58

Forgive slightly.

Presenter14:00

Back then though, you said you were you were angry with the world. I mean what effect did the breakup have on you?

Danny Dyer14:05

Well, I think it was a huge f uh I like to have counselling in school and stuff and I remember

Danny Dyer14:10

I went back to go and see a psychiatrist, and my brother was fine. This is the thing about my brother, he's got a great brain on him. He's 18 months younger than me, but he sort of got on with it and knew that the house was going to be harmony in the house. So, therefore, he was.

Presenter14:20

Because they weren't going to be facing anymore.

Danny Dyer14:21

There wasn't gonna be no fighting. But I went to a psychiatrist as a child and I'd just sit in a room and play weirdly with a doll's house and there would be figures like this is mummy, this is daddy and there's the and I could never quite understand what therapy was.

Presenter14:34

And why had you been referred? Do you know was it because of the fact that it was

Danny Dyer14:37

'Cause I was really struggling in school and I was really playing up and I think that I was obviously it was really it really did affect me and I wanted answers. I suppose I wanted answers because how do you explain to a nine-year-old really?

Presenter14:48

And what did that mean for your mum? How was she then holding things down, looking after things?

Danny Dyer14:48

I'm um

Danny Dyer14:52

She struggled with it. I think she had a bit of guilt about it. She maybe she tried to bring a boyfriend home once and I weren't having it, you know, and he looked a bit like Pat Sharp.

Presenter15:01

Oh, the we should probably contextualise Pat Sharp for younger listeners. The t eighties T V presenter with a fine head of hair.

Danny Dyer15:02

There we

Danny Dyer15:04

Yeah.

Danny Dyer15:06

Tell me.

Danny Dyer15:08

Yeah, yeah, he had a mullet to be fair. It looked a bit like Billy Ida, Willie. And I won't having it with him. And I remember me and my mates plotted up once and he pulled up and he had a Capri. And we and I remember I said, come on, let's just throw bricks at his motor, which I did. But my mum was very understanding about it and elbowed him and said that her kids are more important to her. Which I have a bit of guilt about that later on in life because I think, well, she deserves to have a life.

Danny Dyer15:35

But she also had a teenager running around who was angry and upset at the world, so

Presenter15:40

So, I mean, that's quite extreme throwing smashing a car up, isn't it? I mean, was that indicative of of the kind of thing you were getting up to?

Danny Dyer15:47

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you've got to remember, you know, I was brought up in a place called Custom House, and Custom House is a very tough area, you know what I mean? It's near Canning Town, right on the docks. There was an element of violence in the air. You have to find your feet. There's a man particularly. They did a lot of building work over. There's a lot of building sites that we used to just go over and there was a lot of thieving. I'm not going to lie, I did get into that into a bit.

Speaker 215:58

Yeah, the f

Presenter16:09

Did you have to learn to hold your own? You said there was this atmosphere about it.

Danny Dyer16:11

Again, the thing for me was that I didn't really have to hold my hands because I can make people laugh. So if you're going to make bullies laugh, then you're sweet. Do you know what I mean? I had a few tear-ups as a kid, but interestingly I had a lovely little dog called Sam, who was my little best mate. And he was a little ginger dog, and he had a white question mark on his back. He's like, what is he? But he never had a lead and he would come and hang out with me all the time. So I would sometimes be out with my mates and I'd see Sam with his other little dog mates walking around. He'd gone venture him. He'd have an half a burger hanging out of his mouth with his rammage for a bin. I did have a couple of fights as a kid and he helped me.

Presenter16:18

And a few

Presenter16:38

You've gone venerum.

Danny Dyer16:45

Another throwback that the young listeners won't know is that it was a show called Littlest Hobo.

Presenter16:48

Oh yeah.

Danny Dyer16:49

And he reminded, you know, he was like that sort of dog, you know, he was really lovely and good natured.

Presenter16:53

And intuitive then, because that dog understood people's feelings, you know, was sounding.

Danny Dyer16:58

Yeah, it was amazing. He got me through a lot of trauma. You know, I just lay there by the radiator in the passageway, just cuddling him, stroking him, and.

Danny Dyer17:04

You know, unfortunately he died when I was seventy when I was working away.

Danny Dyer17:08

This is my dad who wrung me up and he was crying for the first time. Never heard him cry about nothing. He sort of left the home, didn't shed a tear, and then my dog died and he was in bits over it.

Presenter17:17

Danny, let's have some more music. It's your third choice today.

Danny Dyer17:20

This is a song called Move Closer, Phyllis Nelson now. But it reminds me of my mum and dad sort of splitting up, weirdly, because it's about people moving closer to each other. But it was my mum who, when she comes over, oh, I like to play music in my house. But when I put this on, she goes, Oh, you're playing mom music. I just think it's a beautiful song. And it just reminds me of my youth and watching my strong mother get on with it, bringing up three kids, pile of ironing next to her, cooking, fag hanging out of her mouth.

Danny Dyer17:50

She doesn't smoke anymore, but yeah. So I suppose it reminds me of her and her strength as a matriarch and a beautiful woman.

Speaker 418:01

Who founds the

Speaker 418:05

Move your body real quick

Speaker 418:08

Until we feel like we're really breaking love.

Speaker 418:28

No.

Presenter18:29

Phyllis Nelson and Move Closer. So Danny Dyer, you've said that you didn't enjoy school much at all, but there was one class that proved to be life changing for you, drama with Miss Flynn. What did you love about it?

Danny Dyer18:41

I just felt I found it so easy. I couldn't believe other people couldn't do it. English, I was rubbish at maths don't even go there. Science, I couldn't understand sociology, all these lessons, I would dread it. And I'd be like, I just don't understand it. I don't you know what I mean? So so, but drama, I just loved it so much. I don't know why that was. I felt I came alive in that class.

Presenter18:59

And you were good at it, and your teacher suggested that you sign up for after school drama classes in North London. So they were run by a charity called Wack Arts that helped young people from poorer backgrounds access the performing arts. Now you didn't have much money. How did you afford the fare from East to North London?

Danny Dyer19:16

My nan sometimes would give me, you know, money to get a travel card and 10 Bence and but I used to have to and I do apologise, but I did I did jump the barriers, you know, I just knew I had to get to Chalk Farm. And as long as I got there and got over the barriers, I didn't mind getting nicked on the way home. But that was also for auditions I got later on. I knew that if I can just get to the door and go in there and do me 15 minutes, I didn't care about getting nicked on the way home because every audition you go for, you might get it.

Presenter19:40

What did it feel like to be good at something, to be told that you were good at something by the grown-ups in your life, by Miss Flynn, by the teachers at your drama?

Danny Dyer19:47

I loved it. There was like a belief in me and it was a nice feeling because I was told how rubbish I was at everything else in school. And I think both of my parents as well when I sort of was doing these after clubs, you know what I mean? It was like really sort of like, oh wow, it's amazing. It's rare. And no one in our family's ever done it.

Presenter20:04

I want to ask about auditioning because the transition from being a kid who's in a bunch of drama clubs and is really talented to being on screen with Helen Mirren happens quite quickly for you.

Danny Dyer20:05

Cool.

Danny Dyer20:10

Yeah.

Danny Dyer20:12

Yeah.

Danny Dyer20:14

We did, yeah, my first audition. Yeah, so you

Presenter20:16

Yes, so you got a pop at fourteen in prime suspect, playing an underage sex worker. Helen Mirren is the lead. It's a huge break for you. Tell me about that audition. How did it feel going into it?

Danny Dyer20:18

Oh, and

Danny Dyer20:27

Obviously, I was aware of Prime Suspect because this was the third one. And I walked into this little doorway, went up the stairs. Sorrow was quite a mad place for me. I hadn't been up there a lot as a kid. So, you know, it's exciting that in itself on your own. You feel like a big boy. And I was the one up there, and I did the audition. I mean, I nailed it. And then, of course, I got a job, and then I was physically on a set.

Danny Dyer20:49

I was with David Fulis and Helen Miran and

Danny Dyer20:53

He's sort of looking around going, What?

Danny Dyer20:55

Me and my Dad had to go to. My Dad came with me as a chaperone.

Presenter20:58

What did he make of what?

Danny Dyer20:59

He just couldn't believe it. Well, he got 50 quid a day as a chaperone. He loved it.

Danny Dyer21:02

First time I was allowed to have a cigarette in front of him as well, so because I felt like a big grown-up, and I loved it.

Presenter21:07

Is that when you start thinking, hang on, this is something I could do?

Danny Dyer21:10

I never felt intimidated by it. I felt that I belonged there for some reason. Even when I'd rapped, I wanted to stay on set and listen and learn. And I remember Helen Wilton said I was a really good actor.

Presenter21:22

That must have been pretty great.

Danny Dyer21:22

That must have been pretty great. Well, yeah, but I loved showing off in front of it. I was gutted when the scene was over. I was like, I'm going to do it again.

Presenter21:27

You work together later, though.

Danny Dyer21:28

We did, we did a film called Greenfingers and she remembered me and she called me here, my boy. She's going to be a cardo, and I was like, oh.

Danny Dyer21:34

You know, to get to play with these people, I think is the ultimate drama school, really.

Presenter21:39

So you'd found your groove. I mean, professionally you were you were on your way, but personally you went through a big loss during this time. You lost your your mum's dad, your granddad. I know that you helped nurse him during his final illness and the two of you were very close. How did you react to such a big loss at such a young age?

Speaker 421:48

Yeah.

Speaker 421:52

Yeah.

Danny Dyer21:56

Well again, this was about the masculinity thing in like my dad left when I was nine, so and then I got really close to my grandfather and

Danny Dyer22:04

I'll tell you what it was about the masculinity with well I felt that masculinity you're not allowed to be affectionate. My granddad who was a big man, big hairy man, painter and decorator was always had a roll up back and his map was really affectionate with kids. You're allowed to sit on his lap and you watch telly with him and so I went, oh you can be masculine and affectionate. And so yeah I watched this man deteriorate over a period of six months and

Danny Dyer22:27

You know, that was my first time of really been introduced to Gadzer and you know, it was difficult. This is the stuff that comes out, I think, later in life. Again, you used to put it away somewhere.

Danny Dyer22:37

But you know, I had a lot of, again, anger, again, grief, and again, a male strong figure that then either dies or leaves me.

Presenter22:45

It's time for disc number four, Danny. What have you chosen for us?

Danny Dyer22:49

Wish you were here, Pink Floyd.

Danny Dyer22:51

I know this is from the 70s, this tune, but I sort of discovered this 90s and I started to smoke sort of weed around this time when I discovered Pink Floyd. And it was me fantasizing about a bigger world out there. I feel like I can achieve something. I don't know what it is, and I've got probably no right to. I've got no scholarship for drama schools or anything like that, but I just, this is a song that takes me to that place of going, I'm going to back myself. I feel like I can do something with my life.

Speaker 423:22

So

Speaker 423:24

So you think he could tell?

Speaker 423:28

Heaven from hell!

Speaker 423:32

Blue skies and pain

Speaker 423:36

Can you tell a green field?

Speaker 423:41

The Coal Steel Rail

Speaker 423:45

A smile from a veil

Speaker 423:49

Do you think you can tell?

Presenter23:53

Pink Floyd and Wish You Were Here.

Presenter23:56

Danny Dyer, by the time you were nineteen, you and your girlfriend Jo were parents. Your daughter, also called Danny, was born in nineteen ninety six. But around that time, the acting work started to dry up a bit. How did you manage?

Danny Dyer24:09

As a child actor, I was getting everything. Obviously I was really quite good as a child actor, I had something about me, but then my voice broke and I and I got taller, but I couldn't grow a beard, I couldn't play a child or a man. So for the first time, I was getting rejection.

Presenter24:23

And how did you handle that?

Danny Dyer24:23

And how did you handle that? Not very well. I couldn't deal with it. Because I'd had a child. All of a sudden there's a little baby in a crib that needs to be fed. It gave me an energy and a drive where I was looking at these other actors that were up for because this is the old days, you didn't have self-tapes, you had to go and find a room in London and go in there and you've got a quarter of an hour and you look at your competition.

Presenter24:42

And what did you make of them?

Danny Dyer24:44

hated them with a passion.

Danny Dyer24:46

And I thought, I'm not going to allow you to take the food out of my child's mouth. I need to get this part. And it did give me a drive and an energy that I probably needed. And I'm very thankful for having Danny so young. I did struggle with being grown up at that time, absolutely.

Danny Dyer25:02

You know, my Joe was so good at it and so like ready to be a mother, maybe. And, you know, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. You know what I mean? I was far too young.

Presenter25:11

A big breakthrough came in nineteen ninety nine. You got a part in the film Human Traffic, playing a small time drug dealer called Moff. So a big moment for you professionally, but you've said that personally you started going through quite a mad time. What was going on?

Danny Dyer25:26

Well, I started to experience fame. You know, I started to get wrapped up in it slightly and you started to lose focus and lose touch with who you are because you become a cartoon character and that's what fame is. There is a responsibility that comes with it, I suppose.

Danny Dyer25:42

But no one t you can't go to fame school and go, Oh, this is how you should behave.

Presenter25:46

I mean, this is peak tabloid era as well, so you would have been in the tabloids a lot.

Danny Dyer25:50

Yeah.

Danny Dyer25:51

But people just wanted to take drugs with me because of my character.

Presenter25:51

Which

Presenter25:55

So they just wanted to rave with the

Danny Dyer25:56

It wasn't like, you know, the old days, an autograph of pen and paper. This is people wanting to take drugs and get off their head with me. And I was well up for it, I'm not going to lie.

Speaker 426:04

Hmm.

Danny Dyer26:05

But of course, you can't really mix that, try and be a father to a young kid and take drugs and feel it's fine. You just can't do it.

Presenter26:11

Finish fine.

Presenter26:12

How did that go then? What was that?

Danny Dyer26:13

Not well, you know what I mean? Not well at all, you know, it was.

Danny Dyer26:17

It's crazy. And and of course you think you're bulletproof and you think it's gonna last.

Danny Dyer26:21

And you're gonna just get loads of work on the back of it and and of course it's not the case.

Presenter26:26

So so after Human Traffic, you took on quite a few hardman roles, Football, Factory, The Business, Pimp. You presented documentaries with titles like Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men. Were you just following the work at this point?

Danny Dyer26:38

Well, I'll tell you what was interesting to me is that I've made a few films and I I just wasn't getting paid any money. And I was desperate to get on the property led. I was still on a council estate in Custom House, living with my daughter and Joe. And it's like, well, I'm famous, but I was still living on a council estate. And so then my house became a bit of like Stonehenge.

Danny Dyer26:55

you know, my little flat and people would just stand outside waiting for me and weirdly nicked me dustbin once and you try and get in the dustbin from the council darling. It's a it was it's a mission. So and then and then there was a moment where someone tried to burgle our house.

Danny Dyer27:10

And I was like, We gotta we can't live here no more.

Danny Dyer27:13

There's also a bit of jealousy.

Danny Dyer27:15

So from whom?

Presenter27:15

From who?

Danny Dyer27:16

So there's a classic saying, don't forget your roots. But also it's like your roots that sort of turn on you first.

Danny Dyer27:22

You know what I mean? I was starting to get a little bit of aggravation in booze as people were coming up to me going

Presenter27:25

Just assuming that you're above yourself.

Danny Dyer27:27

Yeah, maybe. You know, it was a bit of a revelation to me'cause it hurts more.

Danny Dyer27:31

Because it's people that you've grown up with and you haven't changed because fame's not tangible. It was a little bit unsettling for me. And of course, I had my firmamates, of course, and there would be fights and stuff. And I thought, well, okay. So I got offered to do a documentary called The Real Football Fetchers and that. And I couldn't believe the money they was offering me. I thought, oh, wow. Now, I hated it because I didn't have a script. It was me on my own interviewing people and interviewing dangerous people, by the way. But it got me on a property ladder.

Presenter27:55

Was there part of you that was worried about being typecast, though?

Danny Dyer27:59

No, because I didn't have the luxury. You know, it's a bit uncouth. I can't watch'em back now if I cringe at them. But, you know, I needed to earn money and I needed to get a house and I needed to do the right thing.

Presenter28:09

I think we should have some more music, Danny. Your fifth choice to do. What's next?

Danny Dyer28:13

So it's Playing With Knives by Bizarre Rink. Now this is a tune that takes me back to a time where I just remember men and women jumping around and there was a lot of love in the air. Okay, it might have been down to narcotics, but it was a time of freedom and hedonism and

Danny Dyer28:30

just raving until the sun came up and I just loved this type of music. It was just something about bopping around to this sort of stuff that still gives me a little tingle up my spine.

Speaker 429:08

Just dance, move your wife.

Presenter29:10

Bizarre Ink and Playing with Knives.

Danny Dyer29:13

Give me the bigger name in your room like oh

Presenter29:16

Danny, the year after Human Traffic came out, 2000, you played the waiter in Harold Pinter's new work Celebration. How did you get the part?

Danny Dyer29:25

Well, I got sent the script by my agent, who then rang me and was so excited and said.

Danny Dyer29:32

This is huge. Harold Pinter is directing a game, and I was like, who's Harold Pinter?

Danny Dyer29:37

So I went into the Almeida Theatre. I saw Martin Freeman was there, Jude Law was there. I was like, okay, I don't know who this man is. So I went in.

Danny Dyer29:47

walked up to him.

Danny Dyer29:48

And he was sitting there with a couple of people around him. And I went, How you doing, son? And I shook his hand. And I remember the room going a bit weird.

Danny Dyer29:54

Then he went, Okay, you ready to read? and I went yeah And I was a bit umpy.

Speaker 229:55

Okay, you ready to read?

Danny Dyer29:58

So I did it. He didn't give me no notes. I walked out and that was it. By the time I got back, I'd have been offered it.

Presenter30:04

What do you think he saw in you?

Danny Dyer30:05

I don't know. I think there's a rawness to me. I think he's from East London. Well, he is from East London, he's from Hackney. So I think he liked that raw me coming in, bit of a swagger. I may have sworn in there. I do swear when I'm nervous. So I think he might have liked that. And I think he thought I was a good actor.

Presenter30:22

The two of you became quite close. So you appeared in three of his plays while he was alive. You've described him as a father figure. He was.

Danny Dyer30:29

He was.

Presenter30:29

Why did the connection between you run so deep?

Danny Dyer30:29

Yeah.

Danny Dyer30:32

It was my introduction to theatre, which I realized actually there's a way you behave and I had nothing in common with these people.

Presenter30:38

The world was difficult.

Danny Dyer30:39

Very, very, very middle, upper class people that I was around. And I wasn't very good at the social aspect of it. But anyway, he was with me and he put his arm around me. And when your mates were Pino, everyone loves you. Because in this play celebration, I'm talking about very famous writers and poets, W.H. Holden and C.S. Lewis and people I didn't know. So I used to stay at his house in Nottinghill and he would buy me a six-pack of lager. And he would drink his wine. And I'd sleep in his study. He'd put a camp bed out for me. And we would just talk about these people that I didn't understand and why they was important and what they did. And I felt safe with him. And he wanted me to be a theater animal.

Presenter31:18

He'd been quite forgiving of your behaviour at times. I mean, I'm thinking of when Celebration transferred to New York in 2001.

Danny Dyer31:23

Yeah.

Presenter31:25

What happened?

Danny Dyer31:26

We took celebration to New York and there was a Pinter season and we were doing it on Broadway and I was very excited about it. I'd never been to America before and so we'd go out there and work.

Danny Dyer31:35

And I took loads of drugs out there, crack, and I thought that I could go on stage and I didn't have a clue what to do. And I had an anxiety attack. You know, I was just obviously off my head.

Danny Dyer31:45

And I interjected.

Danny Dyer31:47

And then I didn't know what to say.

Danny Dyer31:49

And the worst thing was the other actors.

Danny Dyer31:53

And their faces looking at me'cause they knew I'd been out. They knew it.

Danny Dyer31:58

The sort of like this stain and dick because listen, when you dry on stage, and it happens.

Danny Dyer32:03

You're not just letting yourself down, you're letting them down.

Speaker 432:05

Mm.

Danny Dyer32:06

So, you know, that made me worse. So, anyway, Andy Delatour never forgets shouted the line out, which set me off of the speech, and then I snapped into some sort of weird mode where I did it.

Danny Dyer32:17

And then afterwards I got through it. I don't know how. And I thought, oh, everyone hates me. But it was Harold that came up to me and said, Listen, Danny, if ever there was an ensemble piece is this and he put his arm round me and sort of made me feel better about it. But I felt so bad about letting him down.

Presenter32:32

I mean, that for some people might have been a a turning point. That could have been a a rock-bottom moment for you.

Presenter32:38

What's the

Danny Dyer32:38

I like to get on with the play, so I didn't really have an option of that. Obviously, I've stayed away from drugs for the rest of the run.

Presenter32:45

But it didn't make you want to give up?

Danny Dyer32:46

Nah.

Danny Dyer32:47

Oh no, I couldn't wait to get the run done so I could take more drugs, really. It was like, okay, I just got to get, I don't want to embarrass myself. But since that day,

Danny Dyer32:55

And that's twenty-five years ago, every play I've done since, I uh fear.

Presenter33:01

He died in two thousand eight.

Presenter33:04

How did that affect you?

Danny Dyer33:06

But I hadn't spoken to her in a while. I did go off the rails for many years and um

Danny Dyer33:12

I found out by looking on the front of a newspaper. I was again, I'd been on a bender and I was coming home and I was going into, I think I was going to buy cigarettes and a petrol gouging and I see it in the paper, pinter dead.

Danny Dyer33:21

And I was like, oh, and this really sent me on a spiral of madness, really. Guilt.

Danny Dyer33:29

of not being around him anymore and

Danny Dyer33:32

Just being lost in I was a bit of a lost soul, really, I think, and again, angry at the world.

Presenter33:39

Danny, let's take a minute for some music. It's your sixth choice today. Tell us about it.

Danny Dyer33:43

Well, Oasis came along and Oasis, Columbia being my favourite tune of all. I feel like this is the greatest rock and roll tune that has ever been written. They're a huge part of my life. That's why I've chose Columbia, because I feel that it got a whole generation of working class people into guitar music again.

Speaker 434:02

What is now

Speaker 434:06

All this confusion, not feels the same to me That we were not here we are All this confusion, not feels the same to you I can't tell you the way I feel because you wait I feel it's a so new

Presenter34:31

Oasis and Columbia.

Presenter34:34

Danny Dyer, in 2010 you attracted some unwanted attention for a magazine column. It was published under your name in your capacity back then as a celebrity agony uncle. Now the advice that you apparently gave to a male reader to get over a breakup was go on a rampage, cut your eta's face and then no one will want her. What actually happened with that column?

Danny Dyer34:53

It's ridiculous, that isn't it. They asked me if I would have a column, and I got two grand a week, I think, and I didn't have to write it. I was like, yeah, I'll do it.

Danny Dyer35:02

A guy would ring me up and ask me a few things, and I would sort of talk about it. Now, I remember saying this to him as a quote because it was actually in a thing I did. So, it was the line from a television show. It was a line from a television show. Okay. I don't know why I'd said it. It just repulses me. It makes me feel sick the idea that I would advise someone to do that. So, I mean, listen, if it's now, I'd be cancelled. I'd have been done.

Presenter35:11

So it's a line from a majority of the maps.

Presenter35:14

Okay.

Presenter35:24

There was a a huge backlash.

Danny Dyer35:25

There was a heat

Danny Dyer35:26

I did have a backlash to it, of course, but um I've been around a long, long time and there's nothing about me that would suggest I would ever speak in that way.

Presenter35:34

So, you were taking a couple of grand a week for a column you to left and right. I mean, what was going on in your mind?

Danny Dyer35:37

Is it right?

Danny Dyer35:39

And of course they don't want me to I don't think they actually wanted me to be an agony uncle.

Danny Dyer35:44

They want me to say outrageous things. I suppose I represented a certain thing. I was in lots of films that were masculine, like Football Factory and

Danny Dyer35:54

So I suppose I represented something, but again, you know, doing a lot of drugs, you know, there's no way in the world I should have ever.

Danny Dyer36:01

Add a column in that.

Danny Dyer36:03

It was a mad time for me and I learnt the hard way with it.

Presenter36:05

And what was happening with your career around that time?

Danny Dyer36:08

I'd made a lot of bad decisions with films and so I couldn't green light a project any more. I was lucky to be throwing a bone film wise, but I was famous so I'd go to nightclubs and DJ sometimes, but in gym we'd just wave off of balconies and I'd get paid quite a lot of money to do it.

Presenter36:24

Physically, what was that doing to you?

Danny Dyer36:25

Of course it's awful, isn't it? You look back on it now and it's mad behavior. But again, what does your fame represent? And I think mine represented that. Hedonism, being naughty. So whatever I represented, I played up to it, I suppose. I did.

Presenter36:38

Things picked up for you professionally in twenty thirteen. You joined the cast of EastEnders, played Mick Carter, the new landlord of the Queen Vic. Now you'd been offered a different part a few years before that and turned it down. What made you go for it the second time around?

Danny Dyer36:45

Yeah.

Danny Dyer36:51

I had no money. Dominic Treadwell Collins came to me at a time when I I really was. I had bailiffs.

Danny Dyer36:58

No one would hire me and the more I'm doing these PA club appearances, the more drugs I'm taking, the more drink I'm ta you know, so I was in this weird spiral really. And when he sat me down, he said that he'd read an interview that I'd done and he really got me and he wanted me to play an alpha male that wore a pink dressing gown.

Danny Dyer37:15

I was like, wow, no, I didn't expect this.

Danny Dyer37:18

And I swear I was like skipping. And I rang Joe straight away and said, We're going to be all right. We're going to be all white.

Presenter37:25

In 2017, you took a break from the show and went into rehab in South Africa.

Danny Dyer37:29

Yeah, that was my time to go to be there.

Presenter37:30

You had therapy for the first time. What made you decide to go to rehab then?

Danny Dyer37:36

Do you know what weirdly, I think it was after the NTA's and I came back and invited everyone back to my house. So I just remember having this moment where I was sitting in my toilet on a en suite and I was trying to work out how to put a pair of jeans on. I was that off my head. And I looked up and I looked at my wife.

Danny Dyer37:53

And I could just see how tired she looked, and I could hear

Danny Dyer37:57

Kids running around downstairs in a folk.

Danny Dyer38:00

I need to sort of have a think about addiction and

Danny Dyer38:03

You know, as it affects so many people around you, it's not just yourself, you know, and I could just tell how tired she was and sick of it.

Presenter38:08

It's interesting though, because that's such a small moment though. Like compared to the moment of drying up on stage, that's actually quite a small thing, but you really saw

Danny Dyer38:09

Yeah.

Danny Dyer38:14

Small

Danny Dyer38:16

A huge moment of clarity in the state of me where I couldn't work out how to put on a pair of jeans.

Presenter38:18

Right.

Presenter38:21

Yeah.

Danny Dyer38:22

And so I just thought and I went into work and I said to them, I'm going, I need to go somewhere, I don't know, I don't know what it is, but I'm going to die. I needed to understand what was going on and why it was destroying me and people around me. So, you know, I understood it was down to abandonment issues for men.

Danny Dyer38:40

I was in I was in this rehab in Cape Town.

Danny Dyer38:44

And I had a moment where my ego started to rise again, I'd had enough.

Danny Dyer38:48

And I was like, do you know what? This ain't for me. I'm going to go. And then they read a letter out from home, and it was a letter from my daughter, my daddy.

Danny Dyer38:54

and it made me sit back down in that seat pretty lively.

Presenter38:56

What did she say?

Danny Dyer38:57

I can't really go into it, but it was a very personal thing where you think you're.

Danny Dyer39:03

good at hiding your drug taking and clearly you're not. So it was a moment of I sat back down in that seat and I finished that course and I grew up and understood this is my life and fame and all that stuff that's toxic with it and you're gonna just you're gonna live with it and wear it and be responsible with it.

Presenter39:22

Danny, it's time for your seventh music choice. What's it gonna be?

Danny Dyer39:26

Okay, this is Nebraska by Lucy Rose. Somebody that came to me with an idea for a video and I'd never done a music video before, so I was a bit like, okay. She sent me the tune. I loved the tune. I thought, well, what could this possibly be about? I'm walking along with a bag in my hand.

Danny Dyer39:43

Tough leather jacket. I walk into this club, I bowl in this. Like, oh my god, obviously, he's gonna go in. He's a hitman. And then I then go into the toilet and I have a breakdown. And I'm just like, what's going on in this video? And this beautiful tune behind it. He then cuts to me sitting down in a chair and I put a wig on and I put lipstick on and I become this drag act. It's like a frustrated, and I would say a straight male that just wants to dress up and dance. And I just thought it was a brilliant, beautiful little story. Something I'm probably most proud of out of all the stuff I've done.

Speaker 440:14

Back for you.

Speaker 440:19

The breast of course my day goes

Speaker 440:24

The harvest of my love

Speaker 440:30

The green is turns to grey

Speaker 440:35

And I'm walking on thin ice To find a way really

Presenter40:44

Lucy Rose and Nebraska. Danny Dyer, in twenty sixteen, you appeared in the BBC genealogy programme, Who Do You Think You Are? It was an emotional, significant experience for you. Why?

Danny Dyer40:52

Yeah.

Danny Dyer40:56

Again, going back to validation, I still didn't know why I was famous or in the arts. So I was looking for validation about famous people in McFan. I didn't know it was going to go to King Edward III.

Danny Dyer41:09

Now, all that side of the Royal, I'm not a Royalist, so as much as it sort of excited me, it didn't really. The one that excited me was Thomas Cromwell.

Danny Dyer41:18

who's my fifteen times great grandfather.

Speaker 441:20

Yeah.

Danny Dyer41:21

And he is somebody from Putney who rose through the ranks to be Henry the Apes, right and man, for good or bad, who had no right to and reached out from the area that he was from, similar to myself. And his last act before he died, and and if he hadn't have done this I wouldn't be here is that his son Gregory

Danny Dyer41:42

My fourteen times great-grandfather, he made sure that Gregory married Elizabeth Seymour, sister of Jane Seymour.

Presenter41:48

So this is what connects you to the king.

Danny Dyer41:51

This is what connects me, yeah, through that plantagenet and all that sort of stuff. Yes, absolutely. They wanted to have a child, and they're 15, you know, I said it was me.

Presenter41:52

On that side.

Presenter41:58

It's just a great

Danny Dyer41:59

Stop.

Presenter41:59

Doy.

Danny Dyer42:00

Well, my final scene in Who and Who Do You Think You Are is in Westminster Abbey. And so, and it started off in the workhouses and it ended up there.

Danny Dyer42:08

I did get some validation from it. It was just before rehab, so I was still in a bit of trouble there. I was eating a lot of Valium at the time. I could have maybe reacted a little bit more.

Presenter42:13

Goodbye.

Danny Dyer42:15

But who who doesn't want to wear a ruff now and again?

Presenter42:18

Yeah.

Presenter42:19

Danny, we've talked a lot about masculinity today. Has what that means to you changed over the years?

Danny Dyer42:26

Men do need to open up a bit more.

Danny Dyer42:29

We do need to talk to each other. I envy women that can gossip and talk about stuff. We just don't naturally do it. So let I think we need to play it out in our own way, but we certainly shouldn't bottle stuff up. So

Danny Dyer42:41

I'm still obsessed with masculinity and and the ridiculousness of it, but also it's okay to be masculine and it's okay to not be that in touch with your feelings but be able to speak about it when you're playing poor or sitting in a car or not doing the eye contact. You know, therapy for me is difficult one-on-one tissues and all that, waiting for you to cry.

Danny Dyer42:59

You know, it just makes us shut down slightly. And toxic masculinity is a thing. But it's not necessarily because you're a mal, it's because you're not a very nice human being.

Danny Dyer43:10

But, you know, we've got a lot of lost young men out there at the moment that don't quite know how to behave and are frightened and you know we need to stop it.

Presenter43:20

You met your wife Jo when you were thirteen. Thirty-four years later, two of you are still going strong. You are now grandfather of three.

Danny Dyer43:22

Terrific.

Danny Dyer43:28

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter43:30

How would you describe yourself as a husband, dad and granddad?

Danny Dyer43:33

I'm really good at it now. I was rubbish for many years, a bit like my dad was, I suppose. Uh uh my wife has gone through a lot with me, I think we fell in love when we were thirteen.

Danny Dyer43:45

She didn't know about that I was going to be a a huge success in a sense of getting us sort of out of the area we were from and but she also didn't ask for fame. I know that I embarrassed her really and on a national level and it's it's something that uh I'm very grateful that she gave me another shot.

Danny Dyer44:02

She was saying to me the other day like she's glad she did because now it's like she's got the best version of me.

Presenter44:07

You broke up after you had an affair years ago. Yeah.

Danny Dyer44:09

Yeah, I sort of went into rehab and came out, bounced out of rehab, going, Oh, I'm cured. And she was like, Well, I'm not. And so, you know, I had to leave the home. Yeah. So I still had a lot of years of working on being a decent human being and proving to her that I would never put her through that ever again.

Presenter44:24

How long did it take before she could trust you about that?

Danny Dyer44:26

It's still a process.

Danny Dyer44:28

Some of the stuff I put off for her, you know, she's somebody that's really has kept me grounded for all these years, to be honest,'cause she's never really been into the acting side of things. She never really gives me a compliment, which I love in the sense of most people you come across with fame, you know, they're yes people.

Danny Dyer44:42

She came and watched me in a pin of play once and went, Don't get carried away with yourself. I thought, I probably need that in my life. Keeps me very much grounded. You know, she's the only woman for me, ev f uh for sure.

Speaker 244:47

Very much close.

Danny Dyer44:52

Because nobody knows me better than her.

Danny Dyer44:56

You know, there's a history there. This is why I love her. I adore her. She's a fascinating creature to me.

Presenter45:02

Danny, it's almost time to cast you away to the desert island. What are you expecting life to be like there? What are you imagining?

Danny Dyer45:09

Well, I think I'm quite good at being on my own. I think it's a part of being an actor, is that it's a very.

Danny Dyer45:14

You spend a lot of time on your own and a lot of times in hotels and in random places. I don't think I'd be good in the sun'cause I do tend to go like a crab stick. So um or or fish sticks as they're called now'cause there's no crab in them. What are they? Seafood sticks.

Presenter45:29

They're not sticks either, so

Danny Dyer45:30

So I wouldn't burn. I'd have a very red hooter. So the helicopter will probably be able to show me nose if it comes to save me. So I think I'd be all right.

Presenter45:39

Well, we'll let you have one more disc before we send you away and find out your final choice today, Danny Dyer. What have you got for us?

Danny Dyer45:45

Well it's Wicked Game by Chris Isaac, which is a tune and it's a it was mine and Joe's wedding tune takes us way back to I think I used to get jealous of a show she used to watch called Beverly Hills 90210 because we went to school together we go back so far and this was a show in the 90s for you youngsters and there was a guy in it called Luke Perry who she used to fancy who's dead now rest in peace and this song was in that show

Speaker 246:07

We said

Danny Dyer46:12

And so it's just been a constant in our lives and that's why I chose this song because it's a very much a 90s tune when I first fell in love with her and we're still very much in love.

Speaker 446:22

The world was on fire and no one could save me but you.

Speaker 446:30

Strange world design make foolish people

Speaker 446:39

I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you.

Speaker 446:48

I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like

Presenter46:53

Chris Isaac and Wicked Game. So, Danny Dyer, it's time to send you away to the island. I'm giving you the books, the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare, and you can take one other book. What would you like to choose?

Danny Dyer47:04

Obviously a book by Ray Mears.

Presenter47:06

So it's a kind of survival.

Danny Dyer47:08

Yeah, I think that would be the move, wouldn't it? Just because, you know, sometimes I need some sort of reference of what I can eat mushroom-wise.

Presenter47:08

Really?

Presenter47:15

You can have it. You can also have a luxury item, Danny, for pleasure or sensory stimulation while you're going.

Danny Dyer47:21

Okay, well it will be because I'm quite obsessed with it now, it would be a Lego of the Millennium Falcon. I'm sure it has probably about six, seven thousand pieces. So I I'm quite good with mindfulness and I need that. I did build Hogwaltz once.

Presenter47:34

A Lego Hogwarts.

Danny Dyer47:34

Lego Hogwarts. Lego Hogwarts. That's impressive. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, once you've built it, you don't quite know what to do with it. Where does it sit? So this is my dream one. I love Star Wars Millennium Falcon. I think it would take a long time to do it till someone rescued me.

Presenter47:40

Where is it?

Presenter47:48

Okay, I'm happy to spring for that one for you.

Danny Dyer47:49

Kenya.

Presenter47:50

It's yours, yeah. And finally, which one track of the eight that you've shared with us today would you save from the waves first?

Danny Dyer47:57

I'm gonna go playing with Knives Bizarre Ring, just cause it's a tune.

Danny Dyer48:01

And you know, there's nothing better than a geyser naked dancing about on a desert island listening to wave music.

Presenter48:08

Danny Dyer, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you.

Presenter48:35

Hello, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Danny, particularly the striking island image that he left us with there. We've cast away many actors, including Stephen Graham, Maxine Peake, and Nicole Kidman. Rivals author Jilly Cooper is in our archive too. The studio manager for today's programme was Jackie Marjoram. The assistant producer was Christine Pavlovsky. The production coordinator was Susie Roylence and the producer was Paula McGinley. Next time, my guest will be the scientist, Professor Dame Ijoma Uchebu. I do hope you'll join us.

Speaker 249:14

Hi, I'm Izzy Judd. Have you actually breathed properly yet today?

Speaker 249:19

If things are a bit hectic at the moment, if you're struggling to switch off from work, or if you're generally just feeling a bit stuck in life, I've got just the thing for you.

Speaker 249:29

Join me for the Music and Meditation podcast on BBC Sounds and Radio 3 Unwind. It's a place where we press pause with the help of some inspirational guests, wonderful guided meditations and stunning music.

Speaker 249:43

Honestly, I think you'll love it, so why not give it a go?